Developing Linear Dark-Field Control for Exoplanet Direct Imaging in the Laboratory and on Ground-based Telescopes

TL;DR

This paper presents the development and laboratory testing of Linear Dark Field Control (LDFC), a wavefront control technique aimed at enabling direct imaging of exoplanets by maintaining a deep stellar halo null.

Contribution

It introduces the first laboratory demonstration of spatial LDFC, showing its potential for stable dark hole maintenance in high-contrast imaging.

Findings

Spatial LDFC can maintain a static dark hole in laboratory conditions.

Preliminary results show LDFC is promising for high-contrast exoplanet imaging.

LDFC is suitable for use with 30m-class telescopes.

Abstract

Imaging rocky planets in reflected light, a key focus of future NASA missions and ELTs, requires advanced wavefront control to maintain a deep, temporally correlated null of stellar halo at just several diffraction beam widths. We discuss development of Linear Dark Field Control (LDFC) to achieve this aim. We describe efforts to test spatial LDFC in a laboratory setting for the first time, using the Ames Coronagraph Experiment (ACE) testbed. Our preliminary results indicate that spatial LDFC is a promising method focal-plane wavefront control method capable of maintaining a static dark hole, at least at contrasts relevant for imaging mature planets with 30m-class telescopes.